The bluish gas in the air gave Lin Mu a strange, cold feeling. It felt both familiar yet unfamiliar to him, and he could not tell what it exactly was. But when he touched it, it wasn't just him that showed a reaction.
The Grey egg that had been calmly lying on a pillow in the ring's space suddenly started to shake the moment Lin Mu touched the bluish gas.
"Huh, what?" Lin Mu could feel the egg call out to him for the first time.
So far he didn't know if he had managed to make a taming link between him and the egg like he had done with Little Shrubby. The egg was mostly dormant and would only show an effect when he fed it beast Qi every day.
The process had become like breathing to him and he finished it in less than a minute. He did it at nearly the same time every day and didn't even realize that he was doing it most of the time because it had become habitual to him.
But the egg calling out to him was a very sharp feeling. It showed its emotions and made Lin Mu feel anxious at the same time.
"It… want's this bluish gas?" Lin Mu understood.
At that moment, Lin Mu made his decision.
"Can I take these crystals?" Lin Mu questioned.
"Uh, of course! You can have them senior!" Hu Yao immediately replied.
Lin Mu was the one who had incapacitated the beasts, so it wouldn't be unfair for him to take them. Plus, no one would mind if Lin Mu took some things from them. After all, they owed a lot to him anyway.
Lin Mu took the crystal and looked at them for a few seconds before speaking, "wait for me here. I'll be back in five minutes." Lin Mu spoke and blinked away.
He appeared in another room hidden behind the walls of the current hall. It was mostly empty other than some broken furniture and debris that was scattered in there. Lin Mu paid no attention to it and quickly took out the Grey egg from his ring.
Sitting down, he placed the egg in his lap and took out the two black blue crystals before activating them with his spirit sense.
~shua~
In the next moment, spirit Qi and the bluish gas started to leak out from the crystal. The movement it trembled and sucked all the spirit Qi and the bluish gas towards it. In less than a second, it had already absorbed it all and was pulling out more from the crystals.
Lin Mu too sped it up and decided to shatter both the crystals, releasing all of its stored energies.
~shua~
The egg absorbed all the contents released by the two crystals and went back to its dormant state. Though Lin Mu could still feel that the egg wanted more.
He touched the egg and felt that it felt a bit denser than before.
"Does this help in its growth?" Lin Mu guessed.
"This is rather strange…" Xukong suddenly said.
"What is it, senior? Do you know what this energy or bluish gas is?" Lin Mu questioned.
"That's the thing. I can't tell what it is either. It's definitely some derivative type of spirit Qi but it's hard to estimate due to it being impure." Xukong answered.
"Impure? It wouldn't cause harm to the egg, would it?" Lin Mu asked, feeling concerned.
"That's unlikely. If the egg managed to absorb it successfully and wanted it on its own, then it should be fine. Plus, even I can't tell just what kind of a beast is within that egg. At this point, we can safely confirm that fact.
That egg will certainly not birth a Fire Fang Snake or a Black Water snake. Its bloodline has certainly changed far too much for it to be the same." Xukong replied.
"Hmm… I see. Perhaps we should collect more of those crystals and see what happens." Lin Mu stated.
"You can try. There are a lot of those beasts here, anyway." Xukong replied.
"Very well." Lin Mu said before teleporting back to the place where everyone was waiting.
"I have something to say," Lin Mu said, pulling everyone's attention.
"I would like it if everyone gives me the crystals you get from those beasts. They are useful to me. Also, I will compensate you fairly, so you don't need to worry about that." Lin Mu announced.
"There's no need for that Junior Lin Mu. You can take those crystals if you want to. The disciples are already in your debt. If this helps in paying a fraction of that off, then it is the best." Elder Weimin stated and then looked at the disciples.
"I believe everyone is in agreement?" He asked.
"YES! We are fine with the arrangement." The disciples quickly replied.
"Alright. We'll continue onward then." Lin Mu said and took the lead again.
This time he was more excited as he had obtained another method to accelerate the growth of the Grey egg. He knew that while the beast Qi increased the power of the Grey egg and also improved the bloodline it had; the time needed for it to hatch also increased with that.
It had already been nearly two years since Lin Mu had gotten the egg and it had stayed the same, other than having absorbed a ton of beast Qi. If this could help speed up that process, Lin Mu would be pleased.
While Lin Mu was thinking about this, Jing Luo approached him.
"What's the use of the crystals? Did something happen?" He questioned.
"The Grey egg… it seems to like them. The crystals can help speed its growth." Lin Mu answered.
"That snake egg you've been carrying around all this time? It really is useful for it?" Jing Luo asked, feeling doubtful.
"Yeah. I'm surprised too. It has never acted like this." Lin Mu confirmed.
"Hmm… then it's good. Though I want to see what those crystals can do myself as well. They seem interesting." Jing Luo replied.
